Season on brink; 6 teams sidelined

Will the 2020 Major League Baseball season be shut down Monday?

With six teams idled Friday by the COVID19 pandemic — that’s 20% of the league — Commissioner Rob Manfred spoke to players union leader Tony Clark, with ESPN reporting that Manfred told Clark that if the sport doesn’t do a better job of managing the coronavirus, it could shut down for the year, sources familiar with the conversation told ESPN.

Multiple players briefed on the call told ESPN they fear the season could be shut down as soon as Monday if positive tests jump this weekend.

“Every player in this league better take a hard look at what you’re doing off the field, because what you do affects, more than just you and your team,” Chicago Cubs outfielder Steven Souza Jr. tweeted hours after Friday’s St. LouisMilwaukee game was called off after two Cardinals players tested positive. “Your decisions off the field will put all of our seasons in jeopardy this year.”

Houston manager Dusty Baker said, “The rest now is up to us and the virus.”

Concerns have been expressed about lax behavior by players on the field — such as spitting or highfives — and off.

The Cardinals and

Brewers still hoped to play Saturday night, and to make up Friday’s game with a pair of seveninning games Sunday under a newly approved MLB plan for doubleheaders.

Two weekend series — Nationals at Marlins, and Blue Jays at Phillies — were called off earlier. The Marlins were hit with a virus outbreak in Philadelphia that infected at least 20 members of their traveling party, and both Miami and the Phillies are sidelined for at least a week.

Cleveland players and staff talked about postponing Friday night’s game at Minnesota, but decided to play. The Cardinals had played at Target Field on Wednesday, a day before the Indians arrived.

For the week ending Thursday, MLB said there were 29 positive tests, a rate of 0.2%. Aside from the Marlins, there were eight positive tests for the 29 other teams, only two involved major league players.

The Marlins reportedly received another positive test result; at least 18 of their players have been infected.

“I don’t think there’s a person that thought that this would be seamless,” Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins said. “We are being as safe as we possibly can, but we also understand that this virus is very strong and doesn’t have borders.”